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Henry Adaniya got his idea for Hank’s Haute Dogs from his parents’ stories about operating a hot dog stand on Waikiki Beach.

Janis L. Magin

Pacific Business News

(Page 2 of 4)

Henry “Hank” Adaniya moved to Hawaii two years ago with the goal of nearly every entrepreneur — to open the business of his dreams.

The former Chicago restaurateur, who closed his four-star restaurant Trio in Evanston, Ill., before packing up for the Islands, opened Hank’s Haute Dogs on Coral Street in Kakaako in July 2007.

It was the realization of a dream born from nostalgia generated by his parents’ stories of the hot dog stand they operated on Waikiki Beach before he was born.

“That seed had been in me forever,” he said.

In a way, Adaniya’s new business also was the realization of what many budding entrepreneurs seek — to launch a small business that focuses on their particular passion and see it succeed.

For Adaniya, 54, the Coral Street Hank’s Haute Dogs, where the offerings range from original Chicago-style hot dogs to a duck and foie gras hot dog, was a compromise on his original dream — to open a hot dog stand on the beach, like his parents did, but with a gourmet touch.

“The dream was on the beach in Waikiki, but I couldn’t find a location,” he said. “The original thing was to set it to a tourist market.”

About 80 percent of the market for the Kakaako location, which is managed by Adaniya’s son, Michael, is made up of local people, so Adaniya had to adjust his expectations, and his business plan.

Other issues arose, including limited parking and price sensitivity — hot dogs at Hank’s are priced from just under $5 to almost $11 each — for a local market accustomed to paying $1.50 for a hot dog at Costco.

“We had to adjust it and really look at what we could do,” he said.

That included adjusting the concept, and working to educate customers on the attributes of an authentic Chicago hot dog — a Vienna Beef sausage topped with yellow mustard, bright green relish from the Windy City, tomatoes, onions and a pickle. Even the bun is authentic, shipped from Chicago. Local offerings include a Portuguese sausage hot dog made by Kukui Sausage Co. and a Spam hot dog, while the more exotic items include a lobster hot dog and a duck and foie gras sausage.

The french fries are made fresh and cooked in the style of Belgian pommes frites, fried twice to a crisp.

When a tiny spot in the International Market Place became available several months ago, Adaniya jumped at the chance to be in Waikiki, even though it meant expanding after less than two years in business.

It required more tweaking — the majority of customers in Waikiki are tourists, and the small space doesn’t allow for a deep fryer or much storage so the menu had to be adjusted. A Hawaiian hot dog with a pineapple relish was added, along with a Kobe beef hot dog, and potato chips replaced the french fries. Some of the company’s nine employees shuffle between the two locations.

“I don’t even look at it as juggling,” Adaniya said. “It’s a completely different mindset.”

Just opening a casual food eatery was a different mindset for Adaniya, who operated the fine-dining restaurant Trio for 13 years and helped to launch the careers of several well-known Chicago chefs.

Adaniya, who also provides consulting to would-be restaurateurs, kept his expectations realistic. With no experience in quick service or casual food, he turned to friends in the industry for advice and experience. He talked to the owners of the long-time hot dog businesses in Chicago, including Hot Doug’s and the 60-year-old Superdawg drive-in, the hot dog stand of Adaniya’s childhood. And he ate a lot of hot dogs.

“In many ways this is a selfish venture,” he said. “I wanted to create things that were important to me.”

The first step to creating a dream business, especially a restaurant, is coming up with the conceptual design, he said.

“It is developing a concept and then taking it and looking at it from inside out, and then stepping outside and evaluate the strength of the concept,” he said.

The next step is to figure out who the market is, and then to understand it. Location comes after that.

Next is writing a business plan, and calculating the potential profit and loss for the business, to determine what is and isn’t possible. Adaniya suggests finding resources on the Internet to help with business plans, or asking the U.S. Small Business Administration for help.

Too many budding small-business owners don’t take those steps, said business consultant Ray Riss of R.M. Riss & Associates, who also is a volunteer counselor with S.C.O.R.E. of Hawaii, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating entrepreneurs.

Riss advises entrepreneurs on how to write business plans and how to do their own market research by talking to potential customers, whether they are end users or buyers for retail stores.

“I’ll tell them first and foremost that they have to go out and validate that their idea’s going to be as exciting to others as it is to them,” Riss said. “You’re going to use this whole process as a market research tool to find out what people think of this.”

Next, the entrepreneur needs to identify how to fund the business through at least the first two years of operation — many new businesses don’t turn a profit before then — which is another area where the SBA can help with loans.

Adaniya said he used the SBA for help with his business. But above all, it was his long-time dream that helped make Hank’s a reality.

“The strategy is to be very strategic,” he said. “Follow your passion, because that is the fuel that will sustain you to fruition.”

Small-business issue

Starting your dream business.

Strategies

Evaluate your concept from all angles, inside and out.

Identify your market.

Develop a business plan and run the numbers to see if the concept will work.

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